On March 17, 1780, Absalom Lott, assumed to be a son of John2, was shown on a list of settlers who signed an oath of allegiance to Spain in the recently acquired area of Mobile on the Tombigbee River.⁽⁸⁾ He was surely the same Absalom Lott whose apparent brother, Arthur, signed a promissary note on June 10, 1778, agreeing to pay 2,400 "Spanish mill dollars for value received." Some 25 years later, Absalom finally sued his brother to recover this debt and was awarded a settlement.⁽⁹⁾ Since neither of these brothers made any records in Georgia nor the Carolinas during the Revolutionary War, I think that they were both in West Florida with their father.

Although there is a vague reference in the American State Papers to a Mr. Lott as an overseer in the 1795 in Spanish West Florida,⁽¹⁰⁾ there is no clear evidence of the family in the region after the Revolutionary War and prior to the Louisiana Purchase. However, on February 23, 1804, land speculator William Vardeman made an unsuccessful attempt to gain control of the claim of the above John Lott, Jr.⁽¹¹⁾

In December 1805, John Lott, Jr., of Tattnall Co., GA, who was probably the John #4 on my list and grandson of the above John "Jr.," applied for a passport through the Creek Nation possibly to check into the grant claim for his aging father.⁽¹²⁾ He must have liked what he saw, because on December 27, 1805, he sold two tracts of land to Martin Hardin⁽¹³⁾ and on January 1, 1806, Lott sold 190 acres of land on the Altahaha River to John Sharp Sr.⁽¹⁴⁾ Lott left Georgia by the next week when three tracts of his property, one labeled as "where he lately resided," were sold by the sheriff at a public auction probably to pay taxes.⁽¹⁵⁾ This John Lott made no more records in Georgia and moved his family to the Mississippi Territory making him the first permanent Lott family settler.

John Lott, Jr.'s apparent brothers, Jesse and Robert, also appeared to be landowners in good standing in Georgia until about 1805 when Robert began having a series of legal troubles.⁽¹⁶⁾ On November 22, 1806, Jesse Lott received a passport in Montgomery Co. to go to the western country and made no more records in Georgia.⁽¹⁷⁾ Robert may have left in 1806 too since the sheriff sold 300 acres of his property on the Altamaha in August and there were no more Georgia records clearly associated with him.

In February 1807, John Lott "Jr." made the first legal document located for the family in the new Mississippi country when he executed a deed of gift of slaves to his minor children Elizabeth, Arthur, John, Robert, Jesse, Fanny, and Sarah.⁽¹⁸⁾ He declared that trustees for the slaves were to be his brothers Robert and Luke until his children reached age 21. Why he took this action is not known, but he was possibly contemplating a dangerous return to Georgia to settle family business.

John Lott, Sr. (apparently John #3 from my list) and father of the above John, Robert, Luke, and Jesse, left Georgia in November 1807 and received a passport to the western country.⁽¹⁹⁾ This John was probably a dying man by the time of the move since he soon afterward signed his will on April 14, 1808, in Washington Co., Miss. Territory, naming his children as Elizabeth, Robert, Luke, John, Jesse.⁽²⁰⁾ Later that same year in September and October, his estate was probated.⁽²¹⁾ Alleged son Mark Lott, who had stayed in Georgia, was not listed in these proceedings, but the other men immediately began making records in the territory by signing petitions,⁽²²⁾ serving on juries, and creating various land records.⁽²³⁾

The next wave of Lott immigrants to the Mississippi territory for which we have records is Solomon, son of John #2 on my list, and his sons. The above Robert Lott may have returned to Georgia to help this set of kinfolk move since on January 9, 1809, he received a passport through the Creek Nation along with Amos and Stephen Lott,⁽²⁴⁾ while Solomon came the next year.⁽²⁵⁾

Solomon Lott first appeared in the territory records as an apparent squatter on the west side of the Pearl River in December 1810, with no claim from either the French, British, or Spanish governments.⁽²⁶⁾ He eventually relocated in Hancock Co., Mississippi, where he appeared on the census in 1820. His son Amos claimed 400 acres of land on Bolachitta Creek in June 1810, and at the same time, son Stephen Lott claimed land on Reed (or Reedy) Creek.⁽²⁷⁾ Solomon Lott's sons John, Ezekiel and Jacob were also listed as settlers 1811 and 1812.⁽²⁸⁾

When Marion County, Mississippi Territory, was formed in 1811, members of the Lott family may have already been established at Lotts Bluff on east side of the Pearl River. It is assumed that John Lott (John4) removed from Washington Co. shortly before this date along with his brothers Robert and Luke. Brother Jesse stayed in the Mobile area. This set the stage for perhaps the most famous immigrant to Mississippi: Arthur Lott, who was killed by the Indians in 1812.

Many stories and legends surround the Arthur Lott story and it's hard to separate myth from fact. One apparent myth was that he was moving with his extended family including his sons and brothers William and Nathan. This does not seem to be accurate, however, since by December 27, 1811, William and Nathan were already residents of the territory along with Arthur's probable sons: Arthur and William.⁽²⁹⁾

Arthur Lott had served several terms in the Georgia General Assembly and must have been a man of considerable means.⁽³⁰⁾ Although he did liquidate some property in the spring of 1812, he did not seem to be purging his real estate holdings in anticipation of leaving Georgia and had recently relocated in Tattnall Co.⁽³¹⁾

From all indications Arthur Lott never actually made it to the Miss. Territory. A military report stated that Lott had been killed on May 23, 1812,⁽³²⁾ and the Georgia newspapers though originally identifying the victim as William Lott, soon corrected it and said he had been killed at "Warrior's Stand on his way to Bigby [Tombigbee River] when ambushed."⁽³³⁾ No credible evidence of the actual location of this event has been reported, however, and it is interesting to note that if the newspaper article is correct, Arthur's destination was actually the Mobile area and not the Marion County area. I'm also not convinced that his intention was to permanently leave Georgia.

The importance of Arthur Lott's death to the ultimate settlement of Mississippi, however, cannot be overemphasized.⁽³⁴⁾ In conjunction with several similar events, it was used as a rationale for finally settling the problem of the warlike Creek Indians who inhabited the country between Georgia and the territory. Along with a regular army already in uniform in preparation for the defense of New Orleans, a militia was raised which included the following Lott men and boys: Abraham, Arthur, Jr. & Sr., John Jr. & Sr., Luke, Nathan, Simon, Solomon, William Jr. and Sr.⁽³⁵⁾ The Creek War of 1814 was begun against the Creeks and their allies who were quickly defeated opening the frontier to settlement.

The last of the apparent sons of John2 to relocate in the Mississippi Territory was the above mentioned Absalom. This group does not appear to have immigrated before the Creek War, although the above Abraham may have been a son of Absalom. Perhaps Absalom and his sons, after the surely bitter legal problems with Arthur, did not feel as compelled to avenge his death as did the others. Or, possibly, they were just not a position to do so that quickly from Georgia.

We know they were still in Georgia as late as 1812 from a deed recorded in Telfair Co. This deed was between Absalom Lott and his daughter, Elizabeth, who had married Thomas Watts, son of John A. Watts. These families were closely associated both in Georgia and later in Covington Co. Mississippi. I believe that they immigrated together and that a garbled description of their journey was the source of the unsigned, undated note from the National Archives records which claimed that Arthur Lott had married an Indian woman named Deschultz and had immigrated when the Cherokees lost their land in Georgia with sons William and Nathan along with son-in-law Thomas Watts.⁽³⁶⁾ However, this date is obviously wrong since Thomas Watts was in the Mississippi long before this time. I feel sure that this anecdote of their move was written a generation or so after the fact and was the original source of the misidentification of Absalom's son Arthur as the father of this last group of immigrants. The son was probably the Arthur Lott described as the eccentric first settler of Melba, Mississippi, who had a common law Indian wife and nine children.⁽³⁷⁾

Table 1. A Chart of the Lott Family Members Mentioned in this Paper.

John Lott (John1), c1700-1776, m. Emile

.....John Lott (John2), c1720-

..........Solomon, 1740

...............Amos, Stephen, John, Ezekiel, Jacob

..........John Lott (John3), 1742-1809

...............Mark

...............John Lott (John4), c1760-

....................Elizabeth, Arthur, John, Robert, Jesse, Fanny, Sarah

...............Robert

...............Jesse

...............Luke

...............Elizabeth

..........Arthur, 1750-1812

...............Arthur, William

..........Absalom, c1758-

...............Arthur, Nathan, William, Elizabeth

..........William

..........Nathan

1. Mary A. Peterson, "British West Florida Abstracts of Land Petitions," Louisiana Genealogical Register, vol. 31, (June, 1984), p. 145.

2. John C. Barron, A Review of the Southern Colonial Lott Family, online <http://members.aol.com/jbarron933>, 1996.

3. Carroll Ainsworth McElligott (editor), "John Lott, Sr., and John Lott, Jr., in Screven County, Georgia," Lott Family Newsletter, vol. 1, (July, 1983), p. 83.

4. Peterson, op. cit.

5. Ibid.

6. Anon., "Transcripts of the Mobile Land Records," Deep South Genealogical Quarterly vol. 24, p. 187.

24. Bryan, op. cit., p. 51.

25. Ibid., p. 61.

26. American State Papers, op. cit., Vol. 3, p 36.

27. Ibid., p. 8.

28. Ibid., pp. 36-37.

29. Carroll Ainsworth McElligott (editor), "Petition to Congress by Inhabitants in the Territory," Lott Family Newsletter, vol. 2, (March, 1984), p. 22.

30. Johnston, op. cit., p. 6.

31. Huxford, Old Deeds, p. 142.

32. Henry S. Halbert and T. H. Hall, The Creek War, (No place: University of Alabama Press, 1969 reprint), p. 85.

33. Georgia Express, Athens, June 5, 1812.

34. Halbert and Hall, op. cit., p. 90.

35. E. Russ Williams, Miscellaneous Legal and Family Records Pertaining to the Areas of Pike and Walthall Counties, Mississippi, (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978 reprint), p. 2.

36. Joe Davis personal communication with John C. Barron, source of original document not provided.

37. History of Melba, Jeff Davis County, Mississippi, W.P.A. Records, State Archives, Jackson MS.